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Purvis Young urban landscape overtown full view

Signed, Untitled Painting by Purvis Young (1943-2010)

Urban landscapes were a frequent theme in Purvis Young’s paintings, often depicting the stormy lives and times of Miami’s Overtown community where the artist spent most of his life. In this example, the artist uses layers of thickly applied paint to create a dense atmosphere heavy with heat and tension. Acrylic and house paint on [...]

child's rocking settee

Pre-Civil War Child’s Rocking Settee

      With its excellent workmanship and simplicity of form, this 19th c. child’s rocking settee may well be the work of an early Shaker or Mennonite craftsman. Made of poplar, with early salmon paint that appears to be original, the settee is 32” l x 21” h x 14” d back to front. [...]

19thc. shell decorated box bird's-eye view

Exceptional Antique Shell Decorated Box

      If you’re looking for an antique treasure from the sea, this is it: a stunning little shell-decorated jewelry or dresser box covered with all manner of bronze, amber, pink, pearly and pale purple shells. Given its age and the fragility of the material, the box is in excellent overall condition, with fairly minor breakage [...]

denim elephant construction details

Small Toy Elephant Made of Early Denim

  This nifty little toy elephant is hand made from an early piece of authentic denim fabric: note the interwoven white and indigo threads. It’s treadle sewn, hard stuffed with rags, with thickly embroidered black eyes and a turned-down trunk. I especially love the old red ribbon bow around its neck. I suspect that a [...]

hand-crafted child's ride-on truck

Vintage Child-Size Ride-On Flat Bed Truck

        No doubt the work of a very enterprising dad, this child-size ride-on flatbed truck is designed to hold several small children sitting caterpillar-style who power the vehicle with their feet. As the photos show, the truck consists of two parts: a vintage square-front, two-door cab with a short flatbed and a separate trailer [...]

1930s whirligig with bucking mule

Antique Bucking Mule with Black Cowboy Whirligig

  From Yoakum, Texas, which began life as a railway town and is now the leather capital of the state, comes this vintage whirligig that features a delightfully different subject: a black cowboy on a bucking mule. As the photos show, this is a whirligig that was actually used. Over the years, it’s had its [...]